The investors from Kuwait who were supposed to build the Montrose tourist complex on the Herceg Novi’s part of the Luštica peninsula expressed their readiness for negotiations with the Government in order to find an acceptable solution in connection with that project, the Ministry of Finance said.
Behind this project stands the consortium Northstar and Eques Capital Limited, while the direct owner of the investment is the Kuwaiti ruling family.
In September of last year, the investor informed the government that they were withdrawing from this project, for which the contract was signed in 2009 and international arbitration was announced. After that, the Government formed an operational team for negotiations with the investor consisting of the Ministries of Finance, Culture and Economic Development, the Protector of Property-Legal Relations, the Investment Agency, the municipalities of Tivat and Herceg Novi and the Administration for the Protection of Cultural Property.
It was announced from the Ministry of Finance that the representatives of the Government and the representatives of the competent institutions met with the representatives of the investors on several occasions, all with the aim of reaching an agreement for the continuation of the implementation of the investment.
Therefore, as they stated, despite the many years of problems inherited by this Ministry, they are making efforts to reach an agreement and to realize this serious project, but in that department they are also prepared for a negative scenario of a possible dispute between investors and the state.
In September 2009, the government signed an agreement with an investor consisting of the consortium Northstar and Equest Capital Limited Jersey on the long-term lease of about half a million square meters of state land with the obligation to build, develop and manage the exclusive Montrose tourist complex.
That contract became legally binding in August 2013, when the protocol on its legal validity was signed. The contract was annexed for the second time in February 2018, for which the consortium submitted a notice of termination.
The Municipality of Herceg Novi, on whose part of the peninsula this complex is to be built, said that they have fulfilled all the obligations they assumed in the contract from 2018 with the Ministry of Finance, which concern the provision of electrical, water and traffic infrastructure.
This local administration clarified that they joined the project in 2018, when a protocol was signed with the Ministry of Finance, followed by an annex on cooperation, in order to provide the necessary infrastructure to the location where the complex will be built.
